Supervisor Chris Daly studies paperwork during a San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday May 4, 2010.

Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

Supervisor Chris Daly studies paperwork during a San Francisco...

Image 2 of 3

One of S.F's mayoral candidates 2011: Chris Daly - Progressive former supervisor would inject firebrand views in a generally center-field field. On the maybe list so far.

Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

One of S.F's mayoral candidates 2011: Chris Daly - Progressive...

Image 3 of 3

Supervisor John Avalos (right) speaks during a during a San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday May 4, 2010. Supervisor Carmen Chu (left) looks at her computer.

The home turf of San Francisco's termed-out leftist supervisor, Chris Daly, has undergone dramatic changes in demographics and development. But whether the political landscape also has changed won't be known until November when District Six voters choose their new City Hall representative for the fist time in a decade.

The district ranges from luxury condo high-rises to skid-row flophouses where the city's political divisions over development and budget priorities take center stage.

"It's a district in transition, but whether that will be reflected in the supervisor's race this time is unknown," said David Lee, the executive director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee, who keeps close tabs on San Francisco politics.

Fourteen candidates are vying to replace Daly, a truculent anchor of the Board of Supervisors' liberal majority.

Obstacle for moderates

Business, law-and-order and real estate interests have failed three times to defeat the firebrand Daly with a moderate candidate.

They will try again in this election, but they are up against candidates and interests who are just as passionate about continuing Daly's legacy on the Board of Supervisors to support tenants' rights, the city's vast network of social service programs and new taxes to pay for them, developer-funded affordable housing, and a social justice agenda.

Daly, a former community organizer, helped turn the marginalized single-room occupancy residents of the Tenderloin and north Mission into a formidable political force - a vote-rich constituency that candidates running to replace him are working hard to mine.

Looking beyond core

At the same time, candidates are looking past the district's gritty central city core toward the east, where the more moderate newcomers are settling.

"Daly ignored us, left us out, and only paid attention to the needs of the SRO tenants," said Liddell, who moved into a condo complex at the base of the Bay Bridge 15 years ago, the pioneer days of the emerging residential neighborhood.

The needs of her neighborhood may not be as urgent as those in the impoverished Tenderloin - a neighborhood plagued by substance abuse, prostitution and violent crime - but they are still very real. Among her concerns are car break-ins and pedestrian safety, but topping the list are the build-out of Rincon Hill and Mission Bay and the redevelopment of the Transbay Terminal, which will alter the area for generations to come.

The leading candidates in the race are running hard in all the District Six neighborhoods, promising a new era of reaching out to all constituencies.

Even if the district's newer residents vote, the question remains whether they'll look down the ballot to the supervisor's race or stop after making their pick for governor.

Daly won his last election four years ago with 8,654 votes - 1,603 more than Rob Black, the candidate favored by downtown and moderates.

Black probably came as close as he did because he benefited from an anti-Daly vote, a scenario that won't be in play Nov. 2.

"This is your choice to vote for somebody, not against somebody," Jim Meko, a candidate for the seat said at a recent forum.

Meko, a member of the city Entertainment Commission and a neighborhood planning activist with roots in the South of Market, is one of perhaps a half-dozen front-runners.

Others in the top tiers of the race are Elaine Zamora, an attorney active in Tenderloin improvement projects, and James Keys, a city Mental Health Board member who worked for Daly at City Hall and who picked up the outgoing supervisor's endorsement.

Randy Shaw, who runs the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and operates more than a dozen residential hotels in the district, said he'd be surprised if a moderate could win the race, even if candidates with solid liberal credentials like Walker, Kim and Keys split the vote.

David Latterman, a political consultant working with Sparks, agreed with Shaw that District Six is staunchly liberal and that a shift toward the center will be slow. He said his candidate, who has backing from business groups and Mayor Gavin Newsom, will showcase her background as a transgender woman overseeing the city's human rights policies to keep her opponents from defining her as the conservative in the race.

"You may see a lot of new buildings," he said, "but that doesn't necessarily represent a lot of votes."